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By G. K. Manning, W. E. Few

T has been known for some time that both'inter-granular carbide and intergranular oxide phases cause brittleness in molybdenum. Parke and Ham' indicated that 0.0025 pct 0 present in molybdenum after solidification from the melt was sufficient to induce intergranular brittleness during forging. However, material containing 0.06 pct C could still be forged. However, adding this amount of carbon to insure deoxidation causes the formation of carbides on freezing. These carbides are precipitated at grain boundaries, and Rengstorff and Fischer' have shown they have an unfavorable effect on the room-temperature ductility of molybdenum. Take? in 1928 proposed that the solubility of carbon was a constant value of 0.30 pct from room temperature up to 1800°C. In 1935, Sykes, Van Horn, and Tucker' obtained X-ray data suggesting that the solid solubility of carbon in molybdenum was between 0.07 and 0.09 pct at temperatures from 1500" to 2100°C. The a-solubility line for carbon was included in the Mo-C diagram given in the Metals Handbook as a tentative line based on the data of Sykes, Van Horn, and Tucker. In order to determine the partial phase diagrams for these systems, it was necessary to construct a high-temperature furnace suitable for heat treating molybdenum at temperatures up to 4000°F. A molybdenum resistance furnace was built for this purpose in which samples could be heat treated in a purified atmosphere and quenched from any desired temperature.' Experimental Work Solubility of Carbon: Arc-cast molybdenum supplied by the Climax Molybdenum Co. and 18-gage molybdenum wire samples produced by powder metallurgy at the Fansteel Metallurgical Co. were used in determining the a-solubility line for the MO-C system. The cast molybdenum contained 0.032 pct C initially. Two lots of 18-gage wire were used, one containing 0.011 pct C and the other 0.005 pct C initially. All material contained a carbide phase as received. Fig. 1 illustrates the carbides found in the untreated material. Heat treatment in a purified hydrogen atmosphere was found to reduce the carbon content in the as-cast molybdenum. Purified argonT also decarburized molybdenum samples at temperatures above 3500°F; however, the carbon content remained constant during heat treatment in purified argon at lower tem- peratures. The argon was purified by passing it over titanium at 750 °C and then through a magnesium perchlorate drying tower. The hydrogen was purified by passing it through a commercial hydrogen deoxidizer, followed by a drying tower. Specimens having different initial carbon contents were heat treated in argon at 3500°F for periods ranging from 5 min to 5 hr and were analyzed for carbon. Samples of the same final carbon content had the same microstructures regardless of time at temperature. Furthermore, a gradient between center and surface in the amount of undissolved carbide particles present was never observed. It was concluded that at these low carbon levels, and at the high temperatures involved, diffusion proceeds so rapidly that the specimen is always substantially homogeneous in carbon content, in spite of the gradual loss in carbon. Based on the above findings, the following procedure was used to determine the carbon-solubility limit at 3000°, 3500°, and 4000°F. At each of these temperatures, a number of samples were heat treated, as shown in Table I, and rapidly cooled to room temperature. Since the samples lost carbon in proportion to the length of time heated, a series of samples were obtained of varying carbon contents. By use of a rapid cooling rate, the phases present at the high temperature were retained at room temperature. All samples were examined microscopically. Those found to contain either no excess carbide phase or only a very small amount were then analyzed for carbon. The samples actually analyzed for carbon

Jan 1, 1953

By A. T. Beckwith

The Lehigh Navigation Coal Company Inc. operates steep-pitch, relatively deep mines in the Panther Creek Valley, at the eastern end of the southern anthracite coal field. Commercially minable coal beds are the Mammoth,† Primrose, Orchard, and Buck Mountain;‡ their respective thicknesses average 50, 15, 10 and 12 ft. Sand slates immediately overlie and underlie these beds, though in some locations sandstone or conglomerate beds occur. Underground operations extend to a depth of 1200 ft. below the surface, and comprise a bulk of virgin work on the lower levels, and a small amount of remining on the upper levels. With increase in depth, ventilation has become a more important factor. Development In early days slopes or drifts were driven in the outcropping coal on the hillsides. Subsequent development was by water-level tunnels, with portals above high water in Panther Creek. These tunnels have been maintained because they intercept and drain much water that enters the mined-out portion of the bed and otherwise would follow down to the deep workings+ Below these tunnels, the coal was customarily developed by slopes. Muleways, which are zigzag chutes easy to travel, were also driven to connect lower openings with the water levels. When it became necessary to go still deeper, the slopes were abandoned, and vertical multicompartment shafts were sunk from the surface. Levels have been at vertical intervals of from 175 to 250 ft. Recent practice has been toward the latter spacing, splitting the total lift, however, by starting to mine from chutes extending halfway up to the level above. Chutes customarily are spaced at 50, 60 or 70-ft. centers along the gangways. At some mines, additional shafts have been sunk from the surface to the level containing the main pumping station, and these carry the discharge lines from the pumps. As the mines are ventilated by the exhausting system, both the hoisting and so-called water shafts serve as intakes. The main fan is always on the surface, and is connected with the return airways from the various levels by an air hole or a vertical shaft. For economy, when the present deepest levels were developed, and return-air shafts or air holes were not extended to the new level, but connections were made from the new level to that above by two or more holes. It is doubtful that this method will be continued, as complications in the system, increased resistance to flow, and other difficulties undoubtedly will counterbalance any economies this provision may afford. During the early years of mining, when operations were at no great depth, all development headings were driven in the coal bed. As mining progressed downward, increased ground pressures slowed develop

Jan 1, 1942

By A. T. Beckwith

The Lehigh Navigation Coal Company Inc. operates steep-pitch, relatively deep mines in the Panther Creek Valley, at the eastern end of the southern anthracite coal field. Commercially minable coal beds are the Mammoth,† Primrose, Orchard, and Buck Mountain;‡ their respective thicknesses average 50, 15, 10 and 12 ft. Sand slates immediately overlie and underlie these beds, though in some locations sandstone or conglomerate beds occur. Underground operations extend to a depth of 1200 ft. below the surface, and comprise a bulk of virgin work on the lower levels, and a small amount of remining on the upper levels. With increase in depth, ventilation has become a more important factor. Development In early days slopes or drifts were driven in the outcropping coal on the hillsides. Subsequent development was by water-level tunnels, with portals above high water in Panther Creek. These tunnels have been maintained because they intercept and drain much water that enters the mined-out portion of the bed and otherwise would follow down to the deep workings+ Below these tunnels, the coal was customarily developed by slopes. Muleways, which are zigzag chutes easy to travel, were also driven to connect lower openings with the water levels. When it became necessary to go still deeper, the slopes were abandoned, and vertical multicompartment shafts were sunk from the surface. Levels have been at vertical intervals of from 175 to 250 ft. Recent practice has been toward the latter spacing, splitting the total lift, however, by starting to mine from chutes extending halfway up to the level above. Chutes customarily are spaced at 50, 60 or 70-ft. centers along the gangways. At some mines, additional shafts have been sunk from the surface to the level containing the main pumping station, and these carry the discharge lines from the pumps. As the mines are ventilated by the exhausting system, both the hoisting and so-called water shafts serve as intakes. The main fan is always on the surface, and is connected with the return airways from the various levels by an air hole or a vertical shaft. For economy, when the present deepest levels were developed, and return-air shafts or air holes were not extended to the new level, but connections were made from the new level to that above by two or more holes. It is doubtful that this method will be continued, as complications in the system, increased resistance to flow, and other difficulties undoubtedly will counterbalance any economies this provision may afford. During the early years of mining, when operations were at no great depth, all development headings were driven in the coal bed. As mining progressed downward, increased ground pressures slowed develop

Jan 1, 1942

By G. G. Waddell, T. J. Crocker, S. S. M. Chan

A successful engineering structural design often depends upon a thorough understanding of the material properties of the structure. It is no exception when designing a supporting system for stable underground openings. For this reason, studies were made in the deep mines of the Coeur d'Alene mining district to obtain engineering properties of rocks and rock masses immediately surrounding underground openings. In this paper, data concerning laboratory tested physical properties of rocks and in-situ deformation behavior of rock masses from the Galena, Lucky Friday, and Silver Summit mines of the district are presented. Interpretations of the data so obtained and suggestions for the use of the results of the investigations as design criteria are also outlined.

Jan 1, 1973

By D. Harrington

FROM 1870 to date, the coal production of Utah has been somewhat less than 85,000,000 tons. There have been at least three major disasters with total fatalities about 380; or approximately. 4.4 persons killed by mine explosions per million tons produced, a record that is decidedly bad. Even during the periods when there have been no disasters, such as the years 1914 to 1920, inclusive, the fatalities .in ordinary working ran about 5.4 per million tons produced, against 3.7 per, million tons. for the whole United States for the same years. The five-year period following the war, 1918 to 1922 inclusive, showed 4.7 fatalities per million tons, hence the fatality record in the coal mines of Utah has uniformly been in excess of the average of the coal mines of the entire country. Notwithstanding this poor record, Utah has given to the coal-mining world many excellent safety methods and practices and the Utah. coal mines in general take greater measures toward safe mining than do the coal mines of any other State; if practices and methods allowed and pursued in coal mines of other States were tried in Utah coal mines, there would be a succession of disasters. Utah's principal producing coal mines, operated by about eighteen companies and numbering less than forty, have comparatively thick seams. Very little coal under 5 ft. thick is being worked and practically none under 4 ft.; much, if not most, of the coal comes from seams in excess of 8 ft., some running as high as 30 ft. In thick seams in which coal is left on floor and roof, any dust found or made is entirely combustible. In addition, the thick seams induce the use of large capacity cars, handling which in rooms and other workings on fairly heavy grades (up to 10 or .12 per cent.) tends to cause haulage accidents. The thick seams give high ribs and roof, in which it is difficult to prevent slabs of coal or rock from dropping on workers and also difficult to keep free of gas and of coal dust. The coal is high volatile, running usually over 40 per cent and in some instances nearly to 50 per cent; hence is highly flammable. Most of the coals have very high resin content, the resin usually being in dust form, hence almost as highly flammable as black powder. At .least one-third of the mines give off methane and several give off other

Jan 8, 1925

By Leroy W. Weeks, Peter B. Nalle

The rapid growth of the modern electronic computer industry during the past 15 years is, perhaps, the greatest phenomenon that has occurred in American business in this century. This growth is due in part to the new, and in some instances, revolutionary applications of computers instigated and developed by both the manufacturers of such equipment and their customers who search for easier, faster, more accurate methods of conducting their business operations. As in other industries, modern computers are becoming more common in the field of mining. The adaptation of computer analysis to the unique problems of mining companies is undergoing research and development by both electronic and mining companies. However, for those of us in mining who are interested in the possibilities of computer analysis and control, the basic question is Where can a computer system be of use in a mining operation today? Some ideas of such applications follow, as well as a specific example of computer control at the Riverside Cement Co.

Jan 9, 1960

By Brij M. Moudgil

Disposal of fine coal refuse is one of the major technical problems which could adversely affect growth and development of the coal industry. At present one of the most: common methods for disposal of fine coal refuse slurry involves impounding the slurry behind dams. However meeting new federal and state government regulations for building, maintaining and reclaiming these impoundments in addition to terrain and space considerations render this technique to be only marginally competitive with other disposal methods. The coal industry has been actively engaged in developing alternate disposal techniques which are economically feasible and environmentally acceptable. A review of coal refuse disposal problem and current refuse disposal practice both in the eastern and western coal fields is presented. Various promising techniques being developed for economical and safe disposal of fine coal refuse slurry are also discussed.

Jan 1, 1980

By Frank T. Sisco, Selma F. Hermann

gancse constituent in the alpha grains. Nickel produces a structure of alpha plus cutectoid almost identical with that of the normal aluminum bronze (Fig. 38), except for the rod-shaped nickel constituent in the alpha grains. Silicon produccs a light structure with small regular needles, possibly a modified form of beta. Fig. 45 shows the alpha plus beta structure of the normal 10 per cent. aluminum alloy as quenched. Manganese produces large grains of beta with alpha as a tiny constituent scattered throughout the spceimen. Silicon, on the other hand, produces all alpha, with free silicon present. One per cent. iron produces alpha plus beta, with a tiny constituent present in the alpha grains. Five per cent. iron introduces twins in the alpha and a nodular iron constituent in both the alpha and the beta. Figs. 50-58 include the structures of the alloys with 8 per cent, aluminum, tempered at 400" C. and at 650" C. Fig. 50 is the normal structure as drawn at 400" C!. It consists of large grains of twinned alpha plus a very small amount of beta. One per cent. silicon increases the amount of beta enormously, but when tempered at 650' C, the beta degenerates to a hard blue network constituent. One per cent. cobalt results in a structure of exceedingly fine-grained, twinned alpha, heavily mottled. Nickel produces large soft grains of alpha with a dot constituent in some of the grains, when tempered at 650" C. Manganese, when tempered at 400" C. produces alpha grains and shows the decom-

Jan 1, 1931

By R. W. Raymond

The tidings of Mr. Hewitt's death, cabled to me at Rome, Italy, brought me a great shock as well as a sincere sorrow. I had left him, a few weeks before, not indeed in vigorous health, but still quite able to command recognition as a continued power in public affairs; and I thought him destined to enjoy for many years that final stage of a long, active and honored career, in which, having passed beyond the struggles and rivalries of business and of politics, his life and character could be justly appreciated by all men, like some noble work of art, already crowned, and marked henceforward "hors de concours." Moreover, he was, and would be to the end, not merely the passive recipient of admiration and esteem, but the source of iuspiring appeals, effective warnings and wise counsel. His rich and varied experience he had placed at the service of his fellows. His lightest word was weighty, and those who contradiEted him only injured their own cause thereby. Great trusts (true " trusts," in the old and proper sense of the term), like the Cooper Union, the Carnegie Institution, and others, still commanded his disinterested services. Great principles of liberty and of justice continued to be reinforced in perilous crises by his powerful advocacy; great measures were daily receiving from him a decisive impetus. No wonder it seemed to. us that this happy period of reward so well earned, and of beneacence so welcome to innumerable recipients of its blessing, must continue yet awhile. We did not expect the night instailtly to engulf the full-orbed sun. Nor, indeed, has this been our experience; in this instance, the sunset has left an afterglow more luminous than many a noonday. For the principal data contained in the following brief sketch of Mr. Hewitt's life, I rely upon memoranda personally approved by hirn, some months before his death, for my use in

Jan 1, 1904

By C. R. McClure

The objective of this papef is to summarize briefly the practical use of rock mechanics in design and construction of various types of structures. These range from foundation for industrial facilities, nuclear power plants, bridges and dams to tunnels and underground caverns. The use of rock mechanics has varied from performing a few laboratory unconfined compressive tests on core samples to complete field and laboratory tests for underground power caverns. The primary difference between the rock mechanics studies we hare for construction projects and those most commonly found in the literature is that our tests must provide immediate answers to specific questions facing a design or construction engineer. For example, when we make a plate-bearing test we arrive at a load-deformation relationship. We realize that this is not a true modulus of elasticity. Yet, when considering the resistance the rock will provide against forces occurring in a pressure tunnel it is a far more useful value than the true modulus of elasticity of the rock. Another example of this difference in interest is in the use of flat jacks. Many people criticize the use of flat jacks because they measure the stresses in the disturbed zone very near the surface and do not represent the undisturbed stress condition in the rock. However, in actual construction it is frequently those near-surface stresses with which we must cope. We are interested in both the stress conditions present prior to excavation and those as modified by construction of an exploratory adit or drift. Fundamentally, we are interested in the practical application of rock mechanics in the solution of problems of design and construction of civil engineering works.

Jan 1, 1968

By Gunnar Almgren

Hole deviation has great consequences on mining economy, especially for long hole drilling technique. First of all the bore hole datas are concerned but also such factors as development, loss of ore and waste rock dilution are influenced. Hole deviation for sublevel open stoping is illustrated with examples from some mines. The deviations are indicated as mean values but also as standard deviation values, owing to their statistical distribution. The economic influence of the hole deviation is especially studied for steep, small lowgrade orebodies, mined with big hole blasting. Hole deviation can thus influence costs up to US$ 3-4 per ton for operating, development, losses of ore and rock waste dilution. This cost is of the same magnitude as the total operating costs for many sublevel stoping mines. The economic savings in accurate drilling are therefore substantial and are worth all attention.

Jan 1, 1981

By James J. Scott

INTRODUCTION This paper presents the basic principles which must be followed to create a truly inherently safe mining system. The need to relate the support mechanism to be employed to the ground reaction curve and basic rock mechanics principles will be pointed out. The support system must function in concert with the deformations that are inherent in the selected mining system. Following the support selection, the mechanics for installing support must be developed. This is best done through a cooperative effort between mine engineers, mine operators, safety personnel, equipment sup- pliers, and government inspectors both state and federal. Accident statistics, near miss statistics, review of equipment used by others, geologic features, etc. will necessarily have to be studied. The goal of equipment development and selection should be to develop inherent safety by removing the miner from the hazard area or by providing absolute protection for the miner if he must work in close proximity to the potential fall of ground. The role of good productivity in reducing the numbers of men exposed to hazards is emphasized as a good safety measure ROCK MECHANICS PRINCIPLES A thorough understanding of the ground reaction curve surrounding openings to be created is essential in the

Jan 1, 1982

By Louis Bender

AFTER investigating the work of coal-dust fired reverberatories of the Canadian Copper Co., at Copper Cliff, Ontario, the management of the Washoe Reduction Works decided to experiment with and ascertain the advantages of using coal dust as a fuel in their reverberatories. Consequently, during the month of June, 1914, reverberatory furnace No. 8 was changed in order to use powdered coal as a fuel. The results obtained by this method of firing are gratifying and show a decided saving in cost of smelting as compared to grate firing with lump coal. The furnace, as remodeled; is 124 ft. long by 21 ft. wide, and varies in height from 8 ft. 6 in. at the back end to 5 ft. 7 in. at the skimming end. The general construction of the furnace is similar to that of the other furnaces at this plant. There are no side doors to this furnace, as it was thought that with the present arrangement for feeding no "fettling" or "claying" would be required. The interior of the furnace can be inspected through the burner port holes, after shutting off the burners and giving a few seconds' time for the gases inside the furnace to clear away. The charging is done on either side of the furnace from longitudinal hoppers, extending a distance of 74 ft. from the back end of the furnace. Leading from the hoppers into the furnace are 6-in. pipes, spaced 194 in. apart, through which the charge is intermittently dropped. The charge is kept well above the slag line at all times; in this way the side walls are protected and no fettling is needed on this portion of the furnace. The remainder of the furnace requires fettling. After operating for three months, we found that the bricks were eaten into along each side wall from the skimming door back to the point where the charge had been dropped. The depth of this cutting away was 8 in. close to the front end and gradually tapered to zero at a distance of 50 ft., and was greatest on the side of the furnace having the larger flue connection. Hoppers will be put in for the entire length of furnace, from which fettling material will be dropped, to prevent this cutting.

Jan 1, 1915

By Robert K. Warner

When a new mine is opened, and often when an operating mine must adapt itself to physical or economic changes, a mining system must be selected in complete detail. In the past the plan chosen was usually the product of the local staff alone, however limited the training and experience of that staff might be, which often resulted in the introduction of methods that were familiar to the staff, but not so well suited to the conditions as others unknown to the local men. A new management, noting the difficulties with the existing layout, might make modifications or complete changes, so that many mines in their history have seen a whole series of mining systems, each somewhat laboriously grafted on to its predecessor. This should not be interpreted as a condemnation of the older staffs for sticking to the tried systems, such as open square-sets in the early days at the Homestake, because they knew it would work after a fashion, nor does the statement apply to the technically trained, and usually broadly experienced staffs of most present-day properties. The older miners did not have the variety of tools and methods, nor the present freedom of transfer of information as to what the other man is doing, and so did the best they could under the circumstances. Finally, the higher grade of the ores made the choice less vital. The ever-increasing need to mine low-grade orebodies, with a fixed or even lower price for the metal produced, has caused an increasing need for low-cost mining. In most new mines this has simplified the problem of selection by eliminating from consideration all of the high-cost systems, but it has also complicated the choice by the necessity for refinement in detail and a close adjustment of the plan selected to all the conditions at the property. In these low-cost problems any textbook division of mining systems as applied to "beds, veins or masses" avails little as a guide. It should be realized at the outset that to be successful under modern competitive conditions a system of mining must be worked out with elaborate detail, with careful time scheduling and control of the various elemental operations, and that after it is introduced it must be run with a large amount of technical direction.

Jan 1, 1934

By R. H. Moore

The data for diffusion in dilute binary alloys with the Solvents Ag, Cu, Ni, Fe. Al. and Pb hare been correlated as a function of atomic volume. Linear equations of the form: Q = b - a log V are obtained with constants "a" and "b" ciuirac-teristic of each solvent metal. In most cases. 3-d In recent years measurements of diffusion coefficients in solid binary alloys. using small concentrations of radioactive isotopes. have resulted in accumulation of highly reproducible data. Such and 4-d transition elements correlate on separate straight lines from those which serve to correlate the non/ransition elements. The data for the uon-transilion elements diffusing in silver and copper liave been fitted by least-squares analysis. It is concluded that the size and charge effects which determine the magnitude of the activation energy for diffusion are a function of atomic volume. systems represent the simplest possible examples of chemical diffusion since solute interaction effects can be neglected and Kirkendall-like phenomena do not occur. Generally it is found that thc diffusion rate of the solute is within an order of magnitude of the diffusion rate of the solvent. The differences have been attributed to the effect of size and to electrostatic interactions between the solute and solvent atoms.

Jan 1, 1965

By E. Beril

This may be a most unnecessary paper—from what does crude oil come and how was it formed. Many people, inside and outside of the petroleum industry, believe that we have actually enough oil, and that we can easily produce very important products from this extremely valuable raw material. The writer believes, however, that the answer to this question concerning the parent material and the formation of oil is of broader interest, because it may be that from the answer to these problems it would be possible to get answers to other important industrial questions. Therefore, a study in this line seems to be justified, and the writer will submit some of the results which he has collected during more than ten years with many very capable collaborators, to whom his thanks may be expressed on this occasion. Older Theories There is no doubt that plants were the parent material of coals, but opinion is divided as to the parent material of crude oil and asphalts. One group of specialists believed that they were formed from dead fish. The hydrocarbons of crude oil were formed by the splitting off of CO² from fatty acids formed by the saponification of the fat (glycerides) of fish. Enormous quantities of crude oil are present in many places on the earth, very often in several nonconnected horizons at the same location. This could hardly be explained by the so-called "catastrophe theory," which states that fish died through the entrance of salt water into fresh water, and vice versa. Furthermore, this theory cannot explain the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons, which can be found in nearly all oils, especially in the oil of the Netherlands Indies, which has more than 50 per cent of aromatics. Geological and chemical observations both lead to the belief that the temperature of formation of asphalt, crude oils and coals, perhaps with a few exceptions, did not exceed 200° C. Chlorophyll and haemin derivatives, which decompose above 200° C., have been found in all these materials by Treibs and others. Thermodynamic considerations show that the temperature necessary for the conversion

Jan 1, 1938

By S. J. Hubbard, S. D. Michaelson, A. W. Last, B. H. Ensign

Of the seventeen western states, five-Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, and Nevada-produce about 90 pct of this country's primary copper. All seventeen of these states occupy 60 pct of the nation's land area but receive only 25 pct of the country's total precipitation. Seventy percent of this precipitation returns directly to the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration, leaving very little for ground reservoir recharge or immediate domestic, agricultural, or industrial use. With so limited a supply available for all, competition for water rights among users is severe. The result does not always permit using the limited supply to produce the most valuable end product. Most of industry and much of agriculture can shop around for suitable operating locations. Where water is critical to their purposes, they can and do locate in areas where the needed amounts are available. Such is not the ordinary lot of the mining industry, which must locate in the area of the deposit it is planning to mine and concentrate. In the case of copper this happens to be, for the most part, right in the heart of the semi-arid regions of the West.

Jan 7, 1960

By Thomas M. Chance

All gravity methods for the separation of ore from gangue, or of slate and other refuse from coal, are based upon differences in the falling velocities, in some fluid medium such as air or water, of the materials to be separated. As all materials falling in a vacuum have the same velocity, independent of the size, shape, weight or specific gravity of their individual particles, it would be more accurate to describe the operation of these methods as depending upon the retardation of falling velocities effected by the resistance of a fluid medium, this retardation being greater for small or light particles than for large or heavy particles. This generalization is true also of those appliances utilizing centrifugal force to replace or to supplement the action of gravity. The separation of materials of different specific gravities by means of a fluid having a specific gravity greater than that of the lighter particles and less than that of the heavier particles has not been applied commercially, or on a large scale, to the separation of ores or to the washing of coal, the method being limited to laboratory experimental work or to laboratory determinations for the purpose of checking up the work of jigs, classifiers, and other types of concentrating appliances. A solution of zinc chloride has thus come into general use in the laboratory to separate coal, bony coal, and slate, both to check up the work of coal-washing plants and for the purpose of making tests preliminary to the designing of coal-washing plants. The use of a heavy solution of some chemical in water has often been proposed for making such separations, especially in connection with the washing or preparation of coal. Practically insuperable difficulties, however, have prevented the commercial development of any such process, the difficulties being both physical and financial. The cost of the chemical used to make high-gravity solutions is usually prohibitive, and the freeing of the coal from all traces of the chemical is found to be practically impossible. Such solutions inevitably penetrate the individual lumps and particles of coal, transfusing into the pores and saturating the joint-planes, and very large quantities of wash water

Jan 1, 1918

By W. S. Potter

THE proportions of manganese and carbon in manganese steel are familiar to all, because manganese-steel castings have been well known for a decade or more in this country. The same alloy has now become a commercial product in the wrought state, and, as not only rails and bars are rolled daily but a great variety of forged and otherwise fabricated shapes are appearing, it may be interesting to mark the progress and, perhaps, to look a little closely into the nature of this important material of engineering.

Jan 4, 1914

By Albert J. McIntosh

With petroleum consumption declining temporarily after V-J day, the oil industry is urged to use this period as a kind of stopgap to rebuild its war-depleted inventories and help cushion the effect of this decline on producers and refiners. Higher inventories should be reestablished, since recent experiences have indicated that, by and large, the present inventories of crude oil are too low even with the tremendous current production available. The following analysis indicates that inventory levels could be built up to about 490,000,000 bbl. by the end of 1947, an increase of about 40,000,000 bbl. over the reported stock estimated for the war's end. If at the end of the war the military have some 20,000,000 bbl. on hand, this inventory will either be resold to the industry or certain demands that have been assumed to be met by industry will be supplied out of these military stocks, which would leave about 20,000,000 bbl. (net) to be built up from current production. For stock rebuilding the industry could use 10,000,000 bbl. of crude plus 10,00,000 bbl. of products, totaling 20,000,000 bbl. If this were spread over a year, this would mean 55,000 bbl. a day. By analyzing the average inventories held in a year with the total quantity of goods handled during the year, the following study and tables indicate how far the inventories should increase in the immediate postwar period. Introduction For the period immediately following V-J day, most of the petroleum economists have forecast a considerable decline in the total consumption of petroleum and its products in the United States. This will be caused by the elimination of most of the military demands and the inability of civilians to immediately replace automobiles, burners, etc., and thus increase their requirements to make up for the military decline. When the automobile industry has been back on full production for two or three years, civilians will be able to consume much larger quantities of gasoline. Delay in the manufacture of new oil burners and the time it takes to construct new homes, adds up to the same story for distillate fuels. In reviewing this outlook, the question has arisen whether the petroleum industry should not use this period of lower consumption as a kind of stopgap to rebuild its war-depleted inveritories and help cushion the effect on producers and refiners of this sudden drop in requirements. Some persons have indicated that hundreds of thousands of barrels a day could be used for this purpose extending over a year or more. Refineries will be in existence, which could run over 5,000,000 bbl. of crude oil a day and crude-oil production might be running 600,000 to 700,000 bbl. a day above the demands now forecast for the period after V-J day. Reasons for. Making Inventories In order to plan intelligently for this period, the petroleum industry should determine the needs for the establishment of higher inventories for crude and petroleum products than have been carried during the war. The reasons for trying to make such a determination are as follows:

Jan 1, 1945